IRAQ: INTERNATIONAL DISARMAMEN TEAM LEAVE BAGHDAD AFTER DESTROYING SAMPLES OF VX NERVE GAS AND OTHER TOXIC MATERIALS.

Record ID: 646399

  • Title: IRAQ: INTERNATIONAL DISARMAMEN TEAM LEAVE BAGHDAD AFTER DESTROYING SAMPLES OF VX NERVE GAS AND OTHER TOXIC MATERIALS.
  • Date: 29th July 1999
  • Summary: BAGHDAD, IRAQ (JULY 28, 1999) (REUTERS (A) - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/PAN/TRACK: UN TEAM LEAVING THE Al-RASHEED HOTEL (3 SHOTS) 0.29 2. GV/PAN: UN TEAM LEAVING IN CARS 0.50 3. LAS/CU: UN BUILDING/ FLAG (2 SHOTS0 0.56 4. CU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) UN SECRETARY GENERAL REPRESENTATIVE TO IRAQ PRAKASH SHAH: "The team's task was to evaluate the chemical lab, destroy the mustard agent and the chemical standards and to pack and store the non-toxic standards so that is the task we have done. This particular mandated task is nothing to do with what might have happened in the past or might be the feeling or ideas about UNSCOM job in the past. This task was very limited and clear cut and all that the team done here was to complete the task , finish their mandate and go back." 1.39 5. CU: (SOUNDBITE)(Arabic) IRAQI VICE-PRESIDENT TAHA RAMADAN: "Who brought the VX to Baghdad? Why was it brought here? Is it a means of checking? I am sure that nothing has appeared on the warheads that were checked in the labs of France and other states but the ones which were checked in America." 2.21 6. GV: UN INSPECTORS IN DESERT (5 SHOTS) 2.43 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 13th August 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVADUZMPEWWAY4E98E4XO8PYACM4
  • Story Text: An international disarmament team has left Baghdad
    after destroying samples of VX nerve gas and other toxic
    materials found in a controversial U.N.laboratory.

    The team of experts, dispatched in Iraq to assist the
    UN in the closure of the UNSCOM chemical laboratory, concluded
    its mission in Iraq on Wednesday (July 28).Iraq accused the
    United Nations Wednesday of erasing evidence that would have
    proved its claim that U.N.weapons inspectors had contaminated
    Iraq missile warheads with the deadly VX nerve agent.

    The charge came hours after a U.N.team of independent
    experts left Baghdad after a controversial mission that
    included the destruction of a small amount of VX and other
    toxic materials left behind in a U.N.laboratory.U.N.weapons
    inspectors, known as the U.N.Special Commission, said they
    kept the VX sample to calibrate equipment used to test Iraqi
    weapons sites for traces of the agent.Iraq's Vice-President
    Taha Yassin Ramadan told reporters the U.N.Security Council
    ordered the destruction of the VX because it knew its weapons
    inspectors had used it for contamination.

    Iraq has admitted producing VX, but has denied it produced
    a form that was sufficiently stable to use in warheads.In
    1998, scores of warheads were taken for analysis in the United
    States, France and Switzerland.The U.S.tests turned up
    positive while the Swiss tests were negative and the French
    ones were inconclusive.The U.N.envoy to Baghdad,
    Prakash Shah, dismissed the Iraqi accusations.Iraq has
    repeatedly charged that UNSCOM was not carrying out its
    disarmament in a fair manner, saying many of its members were
    undercover agents of the U.S.Central Intelligence Agency.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register